The Billionaire's Love Child

By: Cj Howard

Chapter1

The warm California sun shone brightly on the massive white marble terrace, and it amplified the cobalt blue of the swimming pool and the intense green of the perfectly manicured gardens that gave way to the beach and shining sea behind the mansion. Kevin walked along the beach and gazed up at his enormous home. He wondered if his wife had risen for the day yet.

They had been sleeping in separate rooms for more than two years. Because she had been so affectionate before their wedding, he believed that their passion would endure through the years, but it had tapered off quickly and was now non-existent.

Ellen spent her days lounging by the pool, shopping and lunching with her girlfriends, relaxing at the spa, or not home at all. She would often leave on trips to other sunny beach resorts.

He had tried to stay close to her, but she had pushed him away and now it seemed like they were not much more than roommates in a giant home, empty except for the two of them and the house staff.

He looked out at the sea and sighed. With all the wealth and prosperity he had, he didn’t really feel as though he had anyone to share his future with, and he truly believed that money wasn’t the sum total of his worth. There was a hollowness in his heart, and even within his soul. He felt he was missing something, as if he were incomplete.

Kevin gazed at the sea and then turned and walked toward the house. When he entered the dining room from the back patio, he saw their housekeeper, Sarah, and paused to talk with her for a moment. Sarah was an older black woman, a bit on the heavy side, and three times as kind as she was big. She smiled up at Kevin.

“Good morning, sir. How are you today?”

.

“Good morning, Sarah. I’m alright. How are you doing?” he asked with a sincere smile.

“I’m fine, sir. Doing just fine.” She nodded and watched him expectantly.

“Sarah, is Ellen up yet?” he asked with a twinge of anxiety.

She looked as though she was hiding her disapproval, but she showed no outward disrespect. “Yes, sir. She just woke up. She said she’ll be taking brunch in her bedroom.”

He nodded. “Thank you. Have a good morning.” He smiled and then walked through the house and up the winding staircase to her bedroom. He knocked on the door and there was no response. He waited a few moments and then knocked again. “Ellen? Ellen, it’s me,” he said to the panel of thick wood before him.

There was still no response. He reached for the door handle and tried to turn it. It was locked. He had discovered shortly after she moved into her own room that she regularly locked her door to keep everyone out, including him. He knocked again and called out sharply to her. “Ellen! I’d like to talk with you, please open your door!”

After several long moments, the door was flung open, and standing in the doorway was a stunning woman with a look of absolute loathing and disdain frozen onto her face. She was just a little shorter than him, with large dark brown eyes, sharp high cheek bones, thin lips that had been inflated through surgery, and lightly tanned skin. Her long, sable brown hair hung down to her softly rounded hips and her surgically enhanced chest was visible through her sheer white negligee that reached from her shoulders to the floor at her feet. It hung slightly open and it stopped everything in his mind when he saw her.

She was stunning. His gaze drifted over her body to her face and then he looked into her ice cold eyes.

“What do you want?” she asked with irritation, glaring at him. “I was busy.”

He took a deep breath and focused on the reason he was bothering her at ten in the morning. “We need to talk. I was hoping you had a few moments this morning.”

She narrowed her thick lashes at him and considered it briefly. “What do you want to talk with me about?”

Kevin sighed. “Ellen, it is important to me, so it shouldn’t matter what I want to talk with you about, we should just be able to have a conversation. May I come in, please?” he put his hand on her door and gave a slight little push.

“Don’t be forceful!” she snapped at him. “I have things to do today, so make it fast.” She turned and strode back into her room, her hips swaying from side to side as though she might have been dancing. She sat at her vanity and faced the mirror, reaching for the facial powder. “Well? What is it?” she asked with irritation.

He sighed and sat on the chaise lounge beside the windows a few feet away from her. “I keep thinking that it would be nice to have a family, Ellen. We used to talk about it all the time before we were married, and now here we are, all these years in, and there’s no talk about it anymore, there’s no effort to try, and hell, we don’t even sleep in the same room or even the same bed. I feel like this house is so empty. I feel like we aren’t going to leave any kind of legacy. What are we doing, Ellen? I want to leave a legacy. I want children.”